Microsoft’s designers are now working together on the future of Windows, Office, and Surface

On Dec 5, 2018

Microsoft has changed the way it approaches design. The new Office icons unveiled this week are the first glimpse at a far bigger design overhaul that’s going on inside the company. Windows is also getting its own icon changes, but the bigger change is a collaborative effort going on between the Windows, Office, and Surface teams. “This is definitely a cross company effort,” explains Jon Friedman, Microsoft’s head of Office design, in an interview with The Verge.

The company’s design leaders — Friedman with Office, Albert Shum on the Windows side, and Ralf Groene for Surface — all work together now. “We operate like an internal open source team,” Friedman says. “So we’re all openly sharing our design work, critiquing the work, working…